


Kill Your Darlings

by Dorksidefiker



Series: Ignoble Reasoning [3]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Spoilers for MTMTE, Unrequited Lust, one sided lust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 18:52:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11904030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorksidefiker/pseuds/Dorksidefiker
Summary: Thunderclash had done the one thing Optimus Prime couldn't bring himself to do.





	Kill Your Darlings

Disappointment and rage.

 

In all the years of their acquaintance, Thunderclash could not recall Optimus Prime ever looking at him with either of those emotions, let alone both at once.  Still, he met the gaze of the Prime with unflinching optics.

 

_I did what you could not._

 

“Do you know what happened to them after you abandoned them?”  Optimus Prime did not roar, nor did his armor rattle with the anger burning in his optics, at some other mechs might have.

 

Thunderclash could hazard a few guesses.  The Council didn’t like getting up close with mechanoids, so they would most likely have sent a disposable agent to keep Megatron and the others occupied until they could set off a geo-bomb.

 

At least it was a quick death.  Less than what Megatron deserved, but Rodimus’s physical suffering would have been minimal in the last moments.

 

“The Decepticon Justice Division found them.”

 

Thunderclash’s energon ran cold.

 

“ _no_.”

 

“We attempted to contact the _Lost Light_ when we received their transmission.”

 

Getaway had insisted (and Thunderclash had agreed to) radio silence after their brief contact with the exiles, both for the _Lost Light_ and all personal numbers, just to be sure no one might be tempted to stage a rescue mission by the pleading of a friend and undo all their hard work.  Only Getaway had been allowed to make any transmissions, and _then_ he had only contacted his handler with the Galactic Council once.  Thunderclash had not been made privy to the conversation, but Getaway had cursed the Council and all things organic for days afterwards.

 

“Transmission?”

 

Optimus obligingly replayed for Thunderclash the last words and final requests of the crewmates that he had so readily condemned to death alongside Rodimus.

 

No message from Megatron among them.

 

No Rodimus, either.

 

It was said that no one escaped the DJD.  Even Thunderclash had only just avoided a near attack on the _Vis Vitalis_ only because Tarn and his band of murderers were more interesting in hunting down a rogue Decepticon in the sector.  Thunderclash had chosen to retreat and leave the Decepticons to kill each other rather than risk his crew.

 

No last message from Rodimus.

 

The very last words Thunderclash would ever hear from his beloved were him screaming at Getaway.

 

Answering Optimus’s private hale had been a mistake.

 

“What happened, Thunderclash?”

 

“We rid the universe of a monster.”

 

It was supposed to be fast.  Thunderclash had been sure it would be fast.  He’d wanted Rodimus punished, but… not like that.

 

“And the others?  Were _they_ monsters too?”

 

Thunderclash kept his gaze locked with Optimus.  “They made their choice.”

 

_Rodimus_ had made his choice.

 

“Did they… the bodies?”

 

What horrors had the Decepticon Justice Division inflicted on Rodimus in his last moments?  Had any of them thought to preserve the perfection of him, or had they taken him apart bit by bit as he begged for mercy?

 

No.   _No_ , his Rodimus would have fought them to the very end.  He would have gone down in a blaze of glory, forcing them to end him _quickly_ , before he could end _them_.

 

For a moment, Thunderclash pictured himself stealing one of the shuttles, following Rodimus to the Necroworld; he’d almost done it the day of the mutiny, to give Rodimus one last chance to change his mind.

 

Saving Rodimus at the last possible moment from Tarn’s clutches even as Megatron’s corpse lay cold and grey on the ground.

 

The gratitude in Rodimus’s optics as Thunderclash pulled him close.

 

_A soft, pliant mouth that tasted like spilled energon._

 

“ _Why_?”  Optimus demanded, cutting through Thunderclash’s fantasy.  “How could you let this happen, Thunderclash?”

 

“Because you put Megatron on the _Lost Light_.”  You put him with my Rodimus.  “Not as a prisoner, not even as a member of the crew, but as _captain_.  Did you really think we could allow that to stand?  You let him make a mockery of justice, you let him roam free!”

 

Optimus’s murmur of _co-captain_ was pathetic, and the dimming of the Prime’s optics meant that he knew it too.

 

“We did what you wouldn’t.”

 

**_I_ ** _did what you_ **_couldn’t_** _._

 

“The bodies,” Thunderclash prompted again.  He would give Rodimus the funeral he deserved.

 

The last thing Thunderclash saw before the feed cut was Optimus’s look of disgust.

**Author's Note:**

> Someday, I'm gonna write something happy with Thunderclash.
> 
> Today is not that day.


End file.
